


against all odds

by fallizbian



Category: Dynasty (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 08:14:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21597322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallizbian/pseuds/fallizbian
Summary: A little piece of their fresh start.(previously titled “onward” and then I decided I hated that title)
Relationships: Fallon Carrington & Liam Ridley, Fallon Carrington/Liam Ridley
Comments: 2
Kudos: 62





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter is mostly fluff because I got a little distracted while trying to get to the actual reason why I wrote this. Absolutely no part of me is sorry for this. 
> 
> I haven’t written fanfiction for 7 years and came out of retirement because 102 fics is just sad so I hope you goons are happy (but seriously please validate me).

Starting over was the easy part. Fallon knew that Liam had meant for them to go slowly, and she had been fully on board with that plan. They hadn’t slept together that first month, and she wasn’t disappointed, per say, maybe just a little horny. But the two of them had never been known for their leisurely pace in just about anything and all of a sudden Liam had a house on St. Simon’s Island and would she like to come along just for the weekend?

The salt, though. She could feel it wreaking havoc on her hair the second they touched down on the tiny little Podunk airport runway Friday afternoon. When she said as much, Liam threw his head back laughing and threatened to throw her in the ocean. She found she didn’t hate the idea as much as she thought she might, thanking her lucky stars she thought to pack a swimsuit that was good for more than sunbathing.

“This is it,” he said, rolling the car to a stop in front of what could best be described as a cottage. It was… quaint. The pale blue paint was peeling in more than a few spots and Fallon was pretty sure that there was a faded spot where a knocker used to sit on the navy door. While the house sat directly on the water, the smell of the saltwater mixed with a lingering rotting fish smell.

“So, I’m guessing this isn’t a Van Kirk holding?” She asked, gesturing to the flowerboxes that could more than use a little weeding.

Liam had the decency to look sheepish. “My mother doesn’t even know this place exists. I told her I was in Savannah this weekend.”

“Why?” Fallon raised her eyebrows. “I thought Laura knew that she failed in her mission to melt me like the wicked witch she thinks I am?”

Liam gave her a look Fallon could only describe as chastising. He grabbed her hand, pulling them easily over the threshold and into a brightly-lit living room filled with wicker lounge furniture. He guided Fallon to the far side of the room, stopping her just short of the large glass doors leading out onto a porch.

“She does,” he said, shrugging. “But you know my mother.”

Offering no further explanation, Liam gathered Fallon into his arms and pressed her against the door. He pressed gentle kisses down her neck until he felt her shiver and lean her head back, opening her hips to him. He fingered the top of her cotton blouse, slipping the buttons through the holes one by one.

“So does this place have a bedroom or what?” Fallon asked, sighing on the last word as Liam undid the last button and slid his arms around to her back, pushing the blouse off her shoulders. He grabbed her hips, steering her through a kitchen painted bright yellow and into a small bedroom almost entirely occupied by a queen-sized bed covered in a faded quilt. He wasted no time pulling the quilt back and tossing her into the sheets, his eyes sparkling as he watched Fallon bounce and settle in. Liam climbed on top of her, quickly sending his shirt and her bra the same way as the blouse.

“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me anymore about your plans for this little shack besides defiling me?” She asked, lifting herself up onto her elbows. Liam smiled in that little teasing way he did only for her, then quickly put both their mouths to better use.

When Fallon awoke the next morning, delightfully sore in all the right familiar places, Liam was right there, propped up on one elbow and playing with one of her curls. She turned onto her side, curling into him and watching his face brighten as she met his eyes.

“So what are your nefarious plans for us this weekend?” She asked, looking up at him and watching as the gears started to spin in his mind. “Or do I just get to keep you in bed?”

Fallon could hear him tense up at this, as if Liam intended to jump up right that moment and delve into their schedule. She pulled him closer, wrapping her legs around his in a last-ditch effort to gain a few more seconds of peace before the chaos.

“Fal. Fal. Fal. Fal.” By the fifth time he reached out to poke her side, she had leapt out of bed. Liam looked up at her, still deliciously naked, a look of faux surprise on his face. “Oh, you’re up? Good.”

She scowled at him, digging through the bag Liam had carried in for her last night. She retrieved a thin robe, wrapping it around herself as he pouted. “Do you want me to stay naked or do you want me to leave the house?” She asked, retrieving her bra from the floor beside her bag. “You can’t have it both ways.”

“Aw, c’mon, Fallon. Why not?” He asked. “Have you ever been to St. Simon’s before? They could be nudists.”

“They’re not,” she said, tossing him a shirt from his own bag beside hers. “Now get dressed. I want breakfast.”

Liam sat up, catching the shirt and looping it around Fallon’s waist, pulling her closer as he grabbed the tie of her robe with his teeth. Begrudgingly, Fallon let herself be dragged back into bed, her stomach grumbling very loudly in protest when Liam rolled on top of her. They barely made it to lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s so short 🤷🏼 It was supposed to be longer but I got impatient and so I split it up into two parts. Second part will be up within the week, hopefully.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more fluff and a little bit of angst.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here's the second part. But I got a little bit distracted again and all of a sudden it's three parts. I'm like 90% sure the third part's gonna be the last because I'm almost done writing it, but who knows.

“The salt is still destroying my hair- you owe me for this,” Fallon said, running a hand through her curls to try to tame the frizz.

Liam stopped where they were walking along the beach and looked at her, threading one of his hands in her hair. “Let’s mess it up some more,” he said, grinning devilishly with his eyes darting over to the water.

Fallon’s eyes widened. “No, no, no,” she said quickly, stepping away from him. “Liam, this is what swimsuits are for. This is not a swimsuit. You see this shirt, right? This is silk and so help me Liam—"

“So take it off,” Liam said, stepping forward to meet her and reaching for the tie front. Fallon stepped away again.

“Ah yes,” she said drily. “I can see the headlines now.”

“We’re on an isolated beach. Nobody’s here. Live a little, Fal,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her blouse off. “This can be our little slice of heaven. Fuck the press, fuck Atlanta, fuck your father and my mother—”

Fallon kisses him, interrupting his spiel. “I would really hope not, babe,” she said, slipping shirt and pants off until they were both left in their underwear. She grabbed Liam’s hand, trying to pull him into the water with her. In Fallon’s mind, it was warm waves lapping over them as they stepped in.

It was exactly the opposite, and Fallon hissed as her feet hit the water. Liam laughed at her reaction, so she turned around, smirked at him, and shoved him into the water face-first.

“Fallon!” he said, jumping back up. “That shit’s cold.”

“No, really?”

Liam gathered up their clothes, grabbing Fallon’s hand as they stumbled back to the cottage. “So much for swimming this weekend, huh?” he said and slid open the porch door he’d pressed her against the previous evening, dumping their clothes over the back of the couch. “We’ll just have to come back when it’s warmer.”

Fallon stopped dead in her tracks where she’d been about to undress and hop in the shower. This was the first time Liam had talked about the future concretely since they’d started over. She could feel her heart threatening to beat right out of her chest and couldn’t quite pinpoint whether it was because of anxiety or anticipation. Liam saw them together when it got warmer out, into the summer. The cottage was a little run-down place, and if it didn’t belong to Liam, Fallon would’ve driven past it without a second thought. But it was a part of him, and she could see them getting a firepit on the porch and having Kirby and Sam out for a weekend over the summer; cramming all the people she loved into the little living room around the table for a game of Monopoly (Fallon always won). Her heart ached for that and she could feel herself breathing faster and her heart shattering as she remembered that this was all just a test and Liam could really decide she wasn’t good enough at any point and maybe this was all just a pipe dream and—

“Babe, do you mind if I—” Liam paused when he saw Fallon standing still as a statue, dressed only in a matching underwear set and looking like she wanted to curl into herself and disappear. “What’s wrong? Fal, what’s going on?”

She looked up at him, feeling exactly like she did when he stood up in front of everyone at her company launch and told her that he knew her favorite color was cobalt blue and that he knew exactly how she loved Southsides and bacon and convertibles. “You said we’d come back.”

“Yeah, so?” Liam asked, grabbing her robe from where it was tossed onto the floor beside the bed that morning. “Fallon, I own this place. Of course we’ll come back in the summer. Unless you hate it or something?” Now Liam was the one to look insecure and unsure of himself, shifting his weight and looking at her expectantly as he held the robe out.

“No! No, Liam, I love it. I just… I wasn’t really thinking that far ahead. I didn’t think you’d wanted to.” Fallon wrapped the robe and her arms around herself, feeling even more naked than before. She could feel warmth creeping up into her cheeks and she turned away from Liam, willing it to go away.

“Fal.” He said. “Fallon. Look at me. I’m not going anywhere. I said it and I meant it. My world is not the same without you.”

“And what happens when something completely and utterly crazy happens again? What if you forget me?”

Liam chuckled a little bit, stepping forward to meet her. “If that happens again, something in the universe has it out for us and maybe we should just stay apart,” he said, ducking out of the way when Fallon smacked his arm. “I’m kidding. You’ll remind me. Just like you did last time. I’m counting on you to be the same crazy woman I love and do something spectacularly stupid like climb a damn trellis to deliver me our book.”

“You love me again?” Fallon asked, taking a tentative step towards Liam.

“Fallon. How could I not?”

“I was pretty crazy, wasn’t I?” She asked, and Liam met her, wiping tears away from her eyes that she didn’t even realize had formed.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said, and their lips met for a few moments before Fallon pulled back.

“I think the cherry on top was when I catapulted across the hospital bed,” Fallon said. “That pretty much cinched it, didn’t it?”

“In the best of ways.” Liam said. He bent down, retrieving the pants that they’d shed on the beach. “But if you’re crazy, I’m crazy too.”

Out of his pants pocket came a ring. _The _ring, with a solid silver band surrounding by gold detailing on either side. Fallon didn’t dare breathe. “That’s your dad’s ring.”

“Don’t worry,” he said, quickly standing up when he saw the look in her eyes. “I’m not proposing. I know we’re starting over and I’m sure you aren’t ready either. But I think it’s only fair you have this back. I paid a housekeeper to steal it from my mother, again.” Liam smirked. “You proposed the first time. And I don’t want to take that moment away from you, whenever the time comes.” Liam held out the ring. “So this is yours for safekeeping. Until we need it again.”

Fallon stood there for a moment, staring at the ring. In another life, that ring would already be on his finger and she’d have one to match. But here they were, starting over, with some of the old memories and new ones to boot. And that ring tied it all together: their future and their past and their past’s future and everything in between. “That’s your dad’s ring,” she said again.

“Is it too soon?” Liam asked, eyes darting from Fallon to the ring in his hand. “I know we agreed to restart, and I know we aren’t ready, but I just thought that maybe one day—”

“I love you,” she cut in. She snatched the ring from his fingers, sticking it in the pocket of her robe before he had a chance to take it back. “I love you and I want to marry you someday, preferably before we have to contend with memory loss or exes or god forbid, your _mother_.”

“She doesn’t know about this place, remember?” Liam said. He took her hands in one of his, threading the other in her hair. “This place is ours. I meant that.”

Fallon pressed her lips to his, wrapping herself around him. She stripped herself of the robe and dragged him toward the shower, leaving a trail of clothes on their way. She pulled Liam under the water and just let him hold her, reveling in the warmth of him until the water ran cold.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a month and a half but I managed to actually finish it. This is the last chapter for real this time I swear.

They extend their stay. Liam takes her shopping in the little boutiques in town he’d fallen in love with the first time he was here. Fallon finds the most adorable little pineapple door knocker, and Liam teaches her how to use a drill (Fallon almost drills through his hand the first time she tries). Liam’s toothbrush sits next to Fallon’s makeup and she finds her socks in his bag one morning. They make the house theirs.

“I bought it last year,” He says quietly on the fifth night, as they sit on the couch in front of the fire, nursing glasses of wine. Fallon raises an eyebrow at him. “The house,” he clarifies, gesturing around them.

“Oh, see ‘cause I thought you meant the wine,” Fallon says dryly. She quiets, seeing the look on his face. “Why?” She asks.

Liam clears his throat. “I, uh, got it right before everything fell apart.”

“Oh yeah?” Fallon interrupts. “Which time?”

Liam smiles at her, picking at the quilt on their laps. “I found the deed a few weeks ago. It closed right before my accident.” They’re both quiet for an extended moment.

“I think about it a lot,” Fallon says carefully, willing herself not to cry. She spins the ring on her right hand. “What our life would’ve been like, if it hadn’t happened.”

Liam grabs her hand to stop her fidgeting. “Fal.” He looks at her, smoothing her hair down with the other hand. “You’re not alone in that. You know that, right?”

She can feel her nostrils flaring and her breath quickening as she tries even harder not to cry. She feels a hot tear fall, and she yanks her hand away from him, quickly wiping it away.

“Please talk to me.” Liam says. “I don’t understand why you won’t let me back in. I love you. I want to be with you.”

Fallon stands up, threading her hands through her hair. “How do you even know that?” she asks. “You don’t have a fraction of the memories. How can you possibly know that you want to be together if you don’t even remember meeting me?”

“I just do,” he says, shrugging.

“That’s not good enough for me!” she says, standing up and pacing back and forth. “What’s to stop you from changing your mind the first time we have a fight, or when Trashley comes back from the spa or wherever the fuck she is, or when my brother tries to sabotage us?”

“Fallon, I bought us a _ house_. I was all in. I still am.”

“You don’t know that,” she says. “It could’ve just been a house. You don’t know that it was for us. You can’t remember any of that.”

“You’re right,” Liam says, getting up and walking into the kitchen. He opens a drawer and returns with a piece of paper. “I can’t remember that.”

Liam sits on the couch and holds the paper out to her. Fallon takes it, scanning over the ink. In big, bold letters (just like their marriage certificate, though she tries not to remember that) reads their names. _ Liam Ridley & Fallon Morrell Carrington _. 

“You bought us a house?” She says, stopping and falling on the couch next to him.

“It’s no Carrington Manor,” he says, shrugging. “But I figure we’ll work our way up. For now though, especially with the rest of our lives in chaos, I think it’s pretty nice to have this little place to ourselves.”

Fallon leans into Liam, looking at the deed to the house. _ Their _house. She can feel her cheeks getting red and she takes a deep breath to steady herself, breathing in the cedar and tobacco undertones of his cologne. She turns her head to look up at him, taking in the excited look on his face.

“I love you,” she says, loving how easily the words roll off her tongue after the last week. She leans up to kiss him, amazed by how simple it all is. She rolls him over, throwing her hair over her shoulder as she leans down to kiss his neck. Liam lets his head fall back onto the couch, snaking his hands around Fallon’s waist under her shirt.

She lets him roll on top of her, lifting her arms as he takes her top off. Liam’s eyes glimmer as he looks at his ring sitting on her necklace. He picks up the ring from the cleave between her breasts, and Fallon pouts.

“Ah yes, what every girl wants a guy to do when he gets her naked,” she says. “Admire her jewelry.”

Liam leans down, pressing a kiss to the spot where the ring lay on her chest and looking up at her through hooded eyes. Fallon squirms under his gaze.

“What?” She asks, staring at him. Liam keeps playing with the ring, running it along the chain between his fingers.

“We might have to get me another ring, because I think this is my favorite look on you.”

“Oh yeah?” Fallon asks. She undoes the clasp of her bra, slipping it off her shoulders. “How about this one?”

“Mm, you’re right,” Liam says, leaning back and looking her up and down. “I think this one might even be better.”

Fallon winks, slipping out from under him and grabbing his hand as she starts towards the bedroom. “Just wait ‘til you see what else I have up my sleeve,” she says, smirking.

The next day, Kirby calls Liam back to Atlanta for a book signing. As Liam throws clothes into his bag, Fallon shoots daggers at the phone and imagines Kirby’s head exploding on the other end of the line.

Liam catches her eye as he hangs up, pulling her in for a kiss before he goes back to his packing. “Fal, we have to go back eventually,” he says. “You and I both know Fallon Unlimited doesn’t run itself.”

Fallon pouts at him, huffing as she sits on the bed. She knows he’s right, but it still feels like going back to Atlanta will break some of the magic they’ve cultivated together over the past week. This thought catches hold in her mind and she stands up quickly, grabbing her bag and stepping into the bathroom before she does something stupid like cry. Liam follows her, leaning on the door as he watches her chuck her toiletries into the bag.

“Fallon.” He grabs her chin, tilting it up to look into her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she says, pushing past him back into the bedroom.

“It doesn’t seem like nothing.” Liam sits on the bed, staring at her. He continues to stare as she zips her bag up. He quirks an eyebrow at her and somehow this is all it takes to make her deflate.

“You don’t like who I am in Atlanta,” Fallon says, sitting beside him. “And I don’t blame you. I don’t even know if I like who I am in Atlanta.”

“Fallon, that’s not true and you know it,” Liam says as he watches her play with the zipper on her bag. “I want to be with you- every version of you. The Fallon who schemes, the Fallon who can raise a business from the ground in a week, the Fallon who fiercely defends the people she loves at all costs, and the Fallon that hates being vulnerable but does it anyways. I love you, and as far as I’m concerned, I’m with you for the rest of my life.”

“That’s what you said the first time,” she mumbles, turning away .

“Damn it Fallon!” Liam throws his hands up, running them through his hair. “I don’t know how many times I can keep apologizing for _ getting amnesia _.”

“I don’t need you to apologize I just need—” 

“What?” he asks quietly, looking down and pausing for a second. “Babe, I don’t know how we can keep going around this merry-go-round.”

Fallon’s heart races and she squeezes her eyes shut. She feels the bottom of her stomach drop out and she can visualize so strongly the moment he realizes that she’s not worth it. She remembers the shame in his eyes in Idaho and wonders exactly how long it’s going to take until he can’t stand the sight of her again. Her heart starts threatening to pound out of her chest when she realizes that time might just be now.

With shaking breath, she reaches toward him. “What are you saying?” she asks, forcing her voice to stay steady even though her tongue feels heavy in her mouth. He doesn’t look up at her.

“You don’t trust me.”

And she feels all the breath sucked out of her. Fallon stands and exits the room, practically running over to the door and escaping onto the deck overlooking the ocean. A cold breeze has set in overnight, and she wraps her arms around herself as tears sting the corners of her eyes. She’d known it was coming, but she didn’t think it was going to be so soon. She thought he’d at least have the decency to wait until they got back to Atlanta. 

Liam steps out onto the porch, sighing heavily. “Fal, can you please come back in so we can talk about this?”

She shakes her head violently, stepping down onto the beach and walking away from him. Belatedly, she realizes she doesn’t have her phone or wallet on her, but she’ll figure that out later.

“No,” she says. “You’ve made yourself perfectly clear.”

“Well I’m glad you have a fucking handle on the situation,” Liam says, hopping down onto the beach and following her. She picks up the pace, shying away at the anger in his voice. He’s not typically an angry person, and she would prefer to keep her last memory of their relationship as the cottage and not whatever bizarre fight he wants to start. “Now do you mind telling me what the hell is going on?”

Fallon trips over a piece of driftwood hidden in the sand, falling flat on her face. Which, of course, is just the cherry on top of being dumped after the most perfect vacation they’ve ever been on. She knew it was too fast. She sits up, throwing the driftwood angrily into the ocean as Liam manages to catch up to her. 

“Why are you following me?” she asks. 

“Why are you running away?” he replies, sitting on the beach next to her. 

Her stomach twists again and she really didn’t think she would have to spell it out for him. “Well, forgive me if I need a little bit of space after--” she stops, not wanting to say it. He looks at her expectedly though, twisting the knife that’s been entrenched in her gut since back at the house. She clears her throat. “After you dumped me.”

Liam is silent for a beat, and then he starts laughing. He starts cackling, actually, and Fallon can feel a tearing in her chest as she gets up to leave again. He grabs her arm though, pulling her back down onto the sand. 

“Fallon, I love you, but you can be spectacularly stupid sometimes,” he says after catching his breath, and he pulls her closer to him. “Why would you think that’s something that I would want?”

She shifts uncomfortably, not quite believing her ears. “You said you didn’t want to keep doing this,” she says, adjusting the strap of her tank top. 

Liam laughs again, pressing a kiss to her temple, then her mouth. With each small act of intimacy, Fallon can feel herself breathe a little easier. He rubs his hands along her upper arms where goosebumps have begun to form, then begins to stand, pulling her up with him and into his warm arms. She relaxes into him.

“Fal, I meant the fighting,” Liam says. “Look, I get that we still have a long way to go, on the trust front. But Fallon, I’m all in. That was the whole point of bringing you out here.”

“Yeah, until I managed to mess everything up on the last day,” she says.

“You didn’t mess everything up,” he says, wrapping his arms around her. “Us going back to Atlanta is not a death knell to our relationship. I want to go back. I want to wake up with you in the morning and fall asleep with you at night. I want to watch you get dressed and do your hair for work in the morning and for a night out with friends. I want to face your crazy family on Thanksgiving and mine on Christmas.”

“You’re such a dork,” she says, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her lips curve into a soft smile. “I think we’d better come here for holidays instead. I can almost guarantee less murder involved.”

“Mmm, sounds like a plan,” he says. He presses a kiss to her lips, disentangling them from each other and taking her hand to lead her home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Amanda (@pearlilly) for helping me break my writers block, even if I did take an inordinate amount of time to come up with an ending to the fight 🤷🏼


End file.
